How to Create Unique Cultures - Game Master Tips

[@GerSan1979]

I have a culture where the people have little plates with water and flowers at the entrance of their houses. The type of flower in the plate indicates the mood of the family. So, In a normal day, the family will show their family flowers floating on the plate. If they're in mourning they'll have black lylacs, for example. This also creates a culture where gardeners are educated people and herbologists are fairly common. A little detail in your culture can create a lot of things around it. Great video! Hopefully you're having a great time in Japan! Greetings from Spain GMs!

[@larsdahl5528]

Grandpa died. But... We can not mourn him. He died in late fall. Lylacs do not flower in late fall!

[@xeltanni8999]

For a second there I thought you were writing a haiku for some reason. =P

[@xeltanni8999]

That is a very simple but interesting change that makes the culture unique already. Do they keep fake flowers around or are those seen as the acme of indecency? Do poorer families use fake flowers because they can't afford the real ones? Do they require you to have a license to become a gardener or botanist?

[@alexisross9343]

Lars Dahl that; sounds like something that could start a mythos, or a bad omen. Like if you have a family member pass and you cannot pay proper respects from no one having black lilacs in the season, your crops in the harvest will blacken in mourning instead, or something.

[@valasafantastic1055]

Great idea! I suppose green houses and or magic such as Druidic magic may be even more common as a result as well!

[@ArawnNox]

A story of my own. I once developed a culture of elves based on breaking down their taxonomy and realized that elves fit the bill of a predatory species and developed a culture that what highly dependent on meat/protein to fuel their longevity. I created this whole thing about ritual cannibalism for status of noble houses/individuals, expansion conflicts for animal husbandry, a culture of hunting megafauna, and a tableu of foods the elves prefered and a cultural tick that they never bared their teeth when they smiled, unless they intended you harm. I've since set it aside because it was just way too complex for a roleplaying game, but I thought it was a fun thought exercise and might have worked better in a novel.

[@Tophandour]

Kinda reminds me of the elves from the Divinity game series.

[@GnarledStaff]

ArawnNox My personal theory is that elves were cats and dwarves bears. The classic elves and dwarves came from Tolkien- who got them from Norse mythology. Elves tend to be associated with trees like mountain lions. Bears live in caves...

[@valasafantastic1055]

Llorwyn elves in MTG are predatory and have a culture of hunting anything ugly; as beauty is paramount to them. It’s a very interesting elvish culture to me. The world has two phases as well. Also they call ugly things that ‘need to be killed’ eyeblights.

[@JanStoffels]

It kind of sounds like the Wood Elves from The Elder Scrolls Universe. Save for the smiling thing, that's a great extra that's really good to role-play, or at least when I read it, it feels like it would.

[@casandrahampton376]

Using that logic, willows would be one of the most talkative, or maybe even chatting and rambling on about multiple subjects at once in an almost unintelligible murmur, bamboo or poplars might use "twin-speak" interrupting each other and finishing each others' sentences, bamboo might have rattling voices, poplars' whispery. And good job with the plant-speak. In my mind's eye, I could actually vaguely see the tree moving and twisting its branches around and groaning like the Whomping Willlow.

[@sawyerpeace9547]

My dominant culture has an odd law where its illegal to carry brooms outside of your homes, for it is a symbol of wishing death upon all around you, and an ancient plague 600 years ago. It is also used as a social image in warfare, and its reasoning has grown in time. This little detail in my lore created almost a bedrock for my society, and it was hilarious when my PCs were aimlessly walking around a megacity with a broom in their hands!

[@valasafantastic1055]

Sawyer Peace hard to have a broom of flying in this world!

[@tzaphkielconficturus7136]

But... Hw do they get the brooms into the houses to begin with? Is it ok, if it's in a box?

[@jonathanstroupe2706]

I have a Dwarven kingdom that is obsessed with industry and sharing their crafts and goods with the world, which gave birth to a group of separatists who rebelled and were cast out, eventually forming a more Spartan society. This group has closed borders (except for the gnome cities) and discards any newborns that seem weak or small. It's so cool how one idea builds off of another idea and turns into another idea. Great video.

[@PowerSkiff12]

how did that happen?

[@oz_jones]

Dwarfs obsessed with industry is pretty typical trope. The separatis formed either because of players, or it just naturally happened during the brainstorming / writing process.

[@musmerized658]

Imagine being kicked out by DWARVES for being too small lol

[@shnitz1290]

Part of me really appreciates how much effort this guy puts in his videos and how much he must love to continue doing it for a small crowd of d&d players thanks for the videos!

[@spartacus17.]

I don't even play D&D I'm just here for the worldbuilding.

[@VallelYuln]

The main reason European cities have narrow roads is that they wanted to fit as many homes as possible within the walls of a city.

[@dougmartin2007]

Yes, American cities came about and sprawled passed any walls quickly since walled cities were not as important. Our only cities with "narrow" streets are our oldest east coast cities like Boston. New York is actually weird in that it has such wide roads in an "old" city. Doubly weird when you think about people trying to get as much as possible on that island.

[@Mamadeira_]

I used to have a history teacher that told the class that Paris has narrow roads to contain riots better

[@VallelYuln]

@@Mamadeira_ As an architecture student I can tell you that the opposite is true. Paris used to be a mess of narrow streets and after the revolutions the famous boulevards and avenues of paris were constructed so that armies would have an easier time suppressing riots. It's actually wide streets that help suppress riots, not narrow ones.

[@theone3193]

@@Mamadeira_ 😂

[@Xerxes2005]

I would think that people would build a wall around the city and not build a wall and then fill it with houses. An exemple is my home town of Quebec City, which is in Canada, North America. The streets of the older districts are narrow whether they're inside the walls or outside. The city was founded in 1608, but it took about a century before they thought of building remparts, and only around the upper city. Then faubourgs (suburbs?) developped outside the walls (Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Saint-Roch, Saint-Sauveur) and the streets are still narrow. The reason is that you don't need wide streets when most people are on foot or driving horse carts. The newer districts have wide streets.

[@ShadowEclipex]

My brother had an interesting cultural thing with is dwarves, where as our party entered the city the guards had us put magical bands on out weapons that prevented us from drawing them or using the. We were doing a villain campaign so this was presented as a bit of an obstacle to us. How do we get into the city with our weapons to do out job without blowing our cover. I was a bard so I had other means of combat besides weapons so I complied without issue. Others though tried sneaking daggers through. They were then caught and tossed in jail for the night and couldn't help us gather information. That was an interesting cultural thing that helped form a good chunk of the campaign.

[@alexisross9343]

I have a world that, come to think of it, has a LOT of culture. Here's the one that stands out the most: I have a race of robots that were given sentience by a symbiotic relationship with an electric mushroom. The mushroom gave them a sense of organic urgency for survival and melded with the knowledge base of their programming to make something close to human. Because of this relationship, they have made the host mushroom a form of deity that requires patronage. Every member that stays within the society hails the mushroom simply as "Mother", and many members make a pilgrimage to her, offering gifts of their own trade. In return, the mushrooms within themselves (which manifest as blue horns) grow larger, split off in different curls, or regrow from damage. Those in this society with the biggest, most intricate horns are revered as the highest status, their leader has half of her entire body ensnared in this fungal entity. Those who's horns break lose connection with the mushroom and devolve into a feral beast and are immediately, permanently exiled and considered deceased. ... if they, however, never make pilgrimage or make very little effort to provide any sort of offering, they get devoured by the mushroom. It's quite a spectacle.

[@Obscenerio]

I’ve been thinking on the culture of plants/trees, and it occurs to me that “may the shade always be upon you” is not a blessing to them but a curse. A tree that grows taller than the ones next to it will absorb more sunlight and directly prevent the others from gaining that resource and inhibit their ability to reproduce. The world of plants is just as competitive and violent as the animal kingdom, but works slower. Perhaps a plant creature would be capable of understanding that lack of sunlight is sometimes desirable to animals and trying to accommodate. Or perhaps you shouldn’t turn your back on that shrubbery.

[@bobbyhempel1513]

A shrubbery!?

[@darkmage07070777]

Our group once activated an ancient super weapon that caused an energy beam to carve a giant casm in the world. From that point forward, whenever we made a new group to play in that world, I would play as part of a cult that worshipped "the God that carved its challenge with light into the world". Over time, our DM even started using it for plot hooks and changed areas based on it (an entire country near the casm converted to my cult once!)

[@mattf967]

I once created a culture focused around the deification of giant ancient robots where to gain any standing in society you had to have worked on an airship for at least a year

[@marcelocapeljunior3579]

So, basically Optimus Prime as our god? I think I can get behind that.

[@MrMaxBoivin]

Oh, you move to Japan. Good on you! South Africa seems to be going down a dark path.

[@ZarmothBlade]

A culture that requires a long, convoluted greeting ceremony might not only be avoided by PCs. Other NPCs might avoid it as well, as a great number of real people would after a while (unless they lived in that culture or were forced to deal with it on daily basis).

[@Lionrhod212]

Great point. So how would the locals avoid the arduous greeting process? Would they wear blinders such as worn by carriage horses, which allow them "plausible deniability" to "sorry, didn't see you." Would they go around in full blindfolds, led by a servant class who is somehow immune to the greetings? Something else?

[@deadmeme8011]

Never clicked off of Pornhub so fast in my life. This is exactly the video I needed. Also, first.

[@borgshadow13]

DnD > Porn

[@Jackb290]

@@borgshadow13 double D

[@sabamonstergaming]

Lmao, well done my friend. Well done. It's obvious that you also have your priorities in order.

[@TheVonWeasel]

I think one of the easiest ways to add uniqueness to a culture is how they perceive Religion. Are they monotheistic or do they have a full pantheon? Do they abhor the entire concept of religion entirely or are they just apathetic towards it and focused solely on material gain? How does their beliefs affect their relationship with other cultures? How does it affect their architecture? Do they have certain colors that they paint their buildings with to honor specific gods? Do they have temples and shrines everywhere? Perhaps there are cultural ticks where you can't speak when within sight of a priest of the temple? It just opens up a world of possibilities and laws because of how pervasive religion is on mass consciousness.

[@DrPotatoPerson]

I love your treespeak. Entertaining, interesting, and highly evocative. This is one of your best videos I've seen imo, really interesting and useful advice.

[@HowtobeaGreatGM]

Thank you very much! I still use it to this day as it is something that works :)

[@JosephKeenanisme]

Like the mixed cultures like in the Expanse... Mostly play sci fi. Creole/mix/blend, "gutter speak" in Bladerunner, Sino-American Alliance in Firefly, Belters & Martians in the Expanse. Even in a larger city state like that there are the subcultures in a city. Manhattan would have stock brokers, punk rockers, asante garde artists, ect. Culture and subcultures add life and color to a city and region. Not to mention the various arts decorating the different neighborhoods :).

[@blakebrockhaus347]

I have three gnomish cities in my world. one is primarily for the forest gnomes, one is mainly for the rock gnomes, and one hidden in secrecy from the outer world is made of the deep gnomes. one of their primary defenses are the small passageways through the city, at only 5' tall. The rock and forest gnome cities are well known in the outside world although only royalty is known to have been let in. The gnomes despite having a fairly large population ~100k total and the cities being a few miles apart rarely trade by the surface. This is because the two upper cities are connected by the lower one, making all invading forces underestimate the "small villages"

[@rondoclark45]

Creating a new culture? My foundational question is, "what do they eat?" Next question, "what cultures have they interacted with, and in what ways?"

[@SonicKaleo]

Love this topic! Ive been praised for my culture development for my homebrew setting focused on a trade city with little to no large scale threats. This video was much needed though because it is now time to develop new cultures in new areas of the region.

[@notoriouswhitemoth]

Redrock was built on a river near a mountain. The river is a source of clay, which once made for fertile farmland but now is more often used for brick-making. Because of the clay from the river, most of the buildings in the town are built from brick. They mine ores from the mountains, and so are fairly industrialized, with a railway station, a telegram office, and even electric lights in most homes. About a third of the town's population, including the local sheriff, are descended from the hunter-gatherer tribes who once lived as nomads in these plains, so their art and other ancient traditions are an important part of the town's life. The town even has horseless carriages for rent, for those who can afford them. Naturally, there's also a bustling prostitution industry. If you're ever in the area, you're certainly encouraged to spend a night at the Rising Sun Tavern. Room and board for one night is only five lets, the luxury suite is fifty lets.

[@AgoodITguy]

Thanks sir, im creating my own World this is a must...

[@kelmirosue3251]

Oscar Hernandez Lol, we are in the same boat. And I find this very helpful considering I have 6 continents in my world. And the Tarrasque is in it and the world knows it.

[@AgoodITguy]

Kelmir Osue cool, my World is smaller an island with five regions. Every region pays tribute to the tirant an acient red dragon...

[@kelmirosue3251]

Oscar Hernandez sounds awesome. You know. If you have discord, we can help each other with our worlds

[@AgoodITguy]

Kelmir Osue Hi Kelmir sorry the delay, you can add me : [e-mail]

[@ImSquiggs]

This is one of my favourites so far. It gave me so many worldbuilding ideas all at once. I really loved your description of the stiff-collared dwarves in particular.

[@pronumeral1446]

Wider streets in America is due to them being planned out better, rather than springing up organically. Also in some parts of America there was more space to work with than in many European cities, and the population overall was lower so there was less crowding. However if you go to the really old cities like Boston you will see it has the narrow streets you would expect in a city like London etc. You see the same thing in Australia - there's a huge difference between the oldest part of Sydney (The Rocks) versus towns in rural areas.

[@oneplate6489]

Though this is quite old, I'd still like to clarify that US cities do not have wider streets because they were planned "better," or really have much to do with density at all. Its more because the wide roads we associate with the US (and Canada) were built after the adoption of the car. Planned cities aren't a new thing, but cities planned out to rely entirely on automobile traffic are.

[@chaunceyshearinjr5997]

Bro can you make a video on how to make games more emotionally charged. As in regards to players afraid to do things because of what the outcome on a friend or even a city will be.

[@StarlasAiko]

What about young cultures in the far past? Greece used to be a young culture once, yet the traditions they had back then were elaborate and long winded. Most fantasy worlds are a mix of medieval and antiquity in their technological and also cultural aspects, therefor, even younger cultures would have the slow rituals, even if they are still working out the kinks and attaching elaborate add-ons.

[@myrus5722]

The part about the collars and your mind wandering freely is extremely well said. Exactly the type of advice/method I was looking for in this video because before this I had no real idea of where to start. Thank you :)

[@vickit9190]

Ever seen those fan propelled swamp boats? They can go fast, and it's fun! Fishing competitions, Dancing to music, swinging on a hammock, eating cantaloupe with your sweetheart on a moonlit night.Swamp people aren't all dour!

[@Kymlaar]

Japan has an interesting aspect where a geological situation lead to adjustments in aspects of their culture. The difficulty with finding iron on the island is commonly credited with a reliance on wood, influencing their choices of building materials, arts, eatery, wood joining methods, tools, weapons, armor, and I'm sure more.

[@dynamicworlds1]

Kymlaar joining without nails is pretty common across all pre industrial societies, actually. Japanese excellence in wooden architecture actually comes from the prevalence of earthquakes making tall stone construction more difficult. Japan is influenced by the scarce resources and a high population to use them, but everyone avoided nails when they could. Also, bamboo is amazingly useful and cheap, so that helps too.

[@Kymlaar]

Interesting! Thanks for the information. :) I would be interested to know about Japanese wooden nails as well, if you know of them. I don't believe that they were used extensively, but it would be interesting to know more about them and their usage, and I haven't been able to find a great amount of information in my (admittedly limited) research attempts.

[@valasafantastic1055]

This just makes my imagination start running wild! Very inspiring! I agree the location/habitat and climate have huge impact. Vikings only became conquering raiders because of a horrible drought that lasted many years and forced them to do so to survive before that think about it people don’t really want to be viscous raiders. Isn’t being a farmer easier and safer and not evil? So for evil races or cultures really NEED this harshness or they well likely wouldn’t BE EVIL. Then again don’t forget the influence of; Gods, magic on the world and that the people have, ancient traditions that persist from different historical conditions ( such as a raiding orc culture who don’t necessarily need to anymore but do still because of ancient tradition, gods and religion and the way their magic tends to manifest. Or conversely a more peaceful and civilized elven culture in a preserved magical forest who persist the old ways despite the wastelands of the post apocalypse that surrounds their isolated protected realm, etc. Etc!) It’s a magical world so I remind people to remember the magical elements when creating cultures and fantasy worlds. Be careful of going too far alien or complex. If you do it may accidentally alienate players a bit as it’s ‘too different’ or ‘too unfamiliar’ but this may really depend on the players. Keep the best ones for books as well if you also find the players are too overwhelmed. Also consider if there used to be very advanced technology or ancient ruins effect on your cultures! Including science fantasy is another valid option. Consider people accidentally worshiping ancient tech or AI as if it was a Diety?! Oh so many UNLIMITED ideas! Remember to also study real world cultures and historical cultures for great inspiration! Remember to research these cultures in context with the location, current technology, religions and other factors! Ah all research you do helps be a better DM, world builder and writer! Keep studying and imagining everyone! Fantastic video I may even rewatch it as it’s so inspiring and well done!

[@leoangeloart]

Napoleon voice: Elves have large ears so they can regulate their internal body temperature, gosh...

[@svnnybvddy]

I reject that dour attitude you say would arise in a swamp town. Every swamp town I've been to has been a rager, including my own: New Orleans. Let's not forget all of the jammin' Everglades.

[@Lionrhod212]

I am so absolutely absconding with the talk to plants thing!

[@joshuastrickland5264]

love listening to your videos, please keep it up. I love your videos on social structures.

[@Lumpyrox1412]

Did you age BACKWARDS? You look like you're in your late 20s now hahaha

[@xeltanni8999]

Oh Guy; I love that you loved this comment. XD

[@jonathanklinker5192]

He's a timelord

[@starbugmechanic5236]

He’s Benjamin Button.

[@oliviabean8264]

Tree's and other plants can respond to threats pretty much instantly albeit they can only do so using chemical signals, using sound (yes, with the right equipment you can hear the cry of the carrots), and by rolling up there leaves or releasing something sticky where they sense the intrusion. Therefore a plant might not be slow in the way it communicates, it could even be borderline dizzying for a humanoid, you could also take inspiration from the stories of shamans and people who have had shamanistic experiences in which they talk to plants or plant spirits. And sure they may be able to distinguish you as the one of the few humanoids around that can actually talk to them but do they even care or distinguish between who there communicating to? All their physical communication methods are omni-directonal and communication with one being on a physical level has never been possible for them as far as we know. Do they even have a concept of individuality or do they look at things on a more holistic level? Also plants have been observed growing differently based on the presence of plants they have no means of detecting that we understand at the moment, if you wanna play on this they could actually be better versed on the intricacies of spiritually communicating with other beings than the person who's just casting a spell. Also while where on the subject of culture and spirits if your going full shinto there may be a spirit that represents the plant, one that represents all of it's siblings in the same root/soil bacteria network, one that represents all the plants in that forest, and one that represents it's entire species. Sure essentially talking to an entire forrest is OP but you could just make them use a higher level spell slot.

[@Jawn15]

Japan? Awesome! I haven't had mochi in ages! I am jealous!

[@frankrobinsjr.1719]

I miss nashi. I loved those snacks while I was living there.

[@gnarthdarkanen7464]

Great video and interesting perspective... It's comprehensive so totally forgiveable in length. Culture is a complicated and many layered beast. Personally, I like to make a few passive notes about how I'd like to express it in a given social structure and then peel back the history and start with a sort of "inciting event" approach to at least some of it. This approach doesn't work to cover everything in any culture, but a fair amount of the "broad strokes" in traditions and rituals can (at least) be made just a bit more believable if you (GM) understand some of the "why" part involving certain aspects of culture. AND it has the added benefit of being able to explain it when (usually a sooner or later) a Player asks, "Why the hell do they do it that way?" In any case some of my best cultural "flavor" as such, has come from plain old mischief... I've invented a sort of desert valley region, lots of high peeks, rocky terrain, miserable heat, and sparse... well... just about anything useful is sparse... SO the people that do congregate the area are very simple, pointedly matter of fact about stuff. They just don't take time for "pleasantries" and I named this wretched territory "Vulgaria"... The highlands would jokingly be "Upper Vulgaria" and the lowlands are "Lower Vulgaria". The races are relatively nomadic and get along easily enough, as in no war. There's just isn't enough of anything to be worth fighting over, so the most consistent "culture" involved is the language of a Vulgarian... and yes, you can probably see where the f*** that's going. A Vulgarian Tinkergnome is mindboggling to try to Role Play well. Of course, for those who enjoy a good round of "devil's advocate", there's always Contraria... A much more lush territory with a wildly political and activist population that seems to find lawyering and argument to be best entertainment as a full-contact sport. It's kind of a national pass time with those peoples... And if a GM is ever in a mood for some truly fiendish antics, Gnomes tend to be the most believable for creating completely inane laws to lie about to newcomers in towns. I had a group of Players absolutely in stitches when I was busy convincing a couple of noob' Players at our table that the Gnomes kept a goat in their bathtubs in town. Of course, while I was doing this, the other PC's fell right in line to the conversations about what the hell they were going to do with the goat while they took baths at the hotel, because someone had to watch over the beast... BUT honestly, who wants to bathe with a goat? Finally, after a couple weeks of this misadventure about town, the PC's end up with a meeting with one of the town's councilmen. And I decided to let them meet him at his opulent estate, where one of the noob's slipped upstairs to check the bathroom (of course) and then confronted the man (er... gnome) about the ill will he'd cause if he didn't have a goat in his bathtub... "What the hell are you going on about?" The councilman wanted to know, and the table literally exploded into fits. Even the new guys had tears rolling down their cheeks for laughing so hard at all the effort to "buffalo" some newcomers into such a damn foolish situation... SOOOooo... I might propose at least some of the time, you can generate fun out of figuratively thin air, just by creating a culture of practical jokery and "screwing with new people". :o)

[@stodorovic]

Don't write comments often; just wanted to say that this is something I've been thinking about for quite a while and absolutely loved the video

[@lukekebell3146]

Would love to see a video where Guy takes us through Braxia's cultures & the things about them that stand out the most. Sounds like a cool world.

[@SpielKnights]

Great video. I’ve been creating a world map and trying to figure out each region and how it operates. This is a huge boost.

[@AndrewChason]

Slightly longer video than normal. Would have been nice to have a checklist/outline of these topics in the description.

[@juliuscaesar5397]

I'm from Nebraska and here's what makes my culture unique: 1. HUGE difference between the Urban part and the Rural part. Seriously. Look at Nebraska's voting districts, and then consider that they share roughly the same population. 2. Massive sports fans. Unlike South Africa where they have a large variety of sports, Nebraska's champion sport is college football. We're fanatics. 3. Masonic shit. My great grandfather was a 32nd degree mason.

[@valasafantastic1055]

Also don’t forget how/ why the laws developed to be the current laws, and honour and familial bonds, religion, Gods, modesty, how affection is shown, the worlds magic,! Also see my other comment! Very inspiring thought provoking video thanks again!

[@JimMonsanto]

This is seriously awesome! My friend and I really love your videos and we both live here in Japan!

[@CriticalEatsJapan]

More great information... It's fun when the DM creates stuff off the cuff but it persists in future encounters

[@timgreen6384]

How long they live would also determine the form of culture! A ceremony, I think in Spain or Italy, they carry a religious statue down roads. A long lived race might have a long road with many different carriers!

[@corygumminger8894]

This is something I'm definitely missing in the world I'm building, very helpful for improvement!

[@gastonlinares5593]

Amazing video! Culture is sooo funny to think while world building! Saludos desde Argentina :)

[@ethankennan212]

I think another way to warn players of the anti-red cloak culture is to have them in a place near the city but outside it, and witness someone else being arrested for wearing the red cloak. Then they can quickly get rid of theirs before the officers/guards notice them. Also, though I haven’t been planning on doing role play sessions with these cultures, I have been worldbuilding multiple species with multiple cultures, mostly focusing on the protagonist species. I tend to start with whatever concept the species morality revolves around, then build cultures, philosophies and ideologies out of different interpretations of that concept.

[@lijesewell764]

Exactly what I wanted, exactly when I wanted it. Thanks for the video.

[@Saadis666]

Great ideas! It game me many ideas for my own world. Thanks. The first idea that came to mind was about my species wich looks like catfolk. Most of them need much more heat than others. I always thoughts about the fire, geysers and volcanos, but not about what is probably even more appropriate for them; body closeness.

[@yuuyiatakahashi1943]

This was very helpful considering that I’m fleshing out the world I’m building so that I can introduce players

[@popesuavecitoxii2379]

Great video! I'm not a gamer, but I wanted advice for designing alien races for my story and this helped me a lot. THANKS

[@johncameron1935]

This was timed perfectly for me. I have my group entering the nomadic eastern tribes of the oro'kai orcs soon, and they need to be separate from the other orcs as well as other cultures in the area. I am going to use these guidelines!

[@thatindiandude4602]

John Cameron Hey man. I am thinking exactly along the same lines. In my world, Certain orcs along the coast in my world are expert whalers and thus have excellent maritime abilities. A group of orcs live high in the mountains and depend on wyvefns for food and transport.

[@johncameron1935]

ThatIndian Dude I'm going to steal this. Haha

[@thatindiandude4602]

John Cameron go for it :)

[@thatindiandude4602]

Also in terms of culture, the orcs that live near the coast are less aggressive because they only need to catch two or three whales each year. The orcs that live in the mountains are excellent guerrilla fighters because they have taken over an abandoned dwarven fortress and use its tunnels to pop up anywhere as well as the wyvers for aetial harrassment :)

[@johncameron1935]

ThatIndian Dude mine are horse nomads for the most part, but I suppose as they go further south they might get into situations to go whaling.

[@Cbutlerification]

I like to make cultures that are both pleasant and unpleasant. This adds variety. Sometimes I will make the people that have what the players need be of a culture they don't like, but not for any other reason than they are annoying. Just to see how they handle it.

[@shehathnoname]

Since you have moved to Japan I guess that the original bacon battalion RPG has no hope of continuing? If so I'm very sad as I was quite excited by it and very curious about the story.

[@andrewsharp4950]

I've never really known how to handle travel and time. I think it would be very helpful to cover these. How do I handle travel other than simply saying "X happens on your way up the path" or "in about 4 hours of uneventful riding, you all arrive at the cave entrance marked on the map." How do we interlace the passage of time in games? Make NPCs/locations/objects change through time in a way that is meaningful to the player?

[@rashkavar]

"instead of a pharaoh, I have a pharos" You have lighthouse kings? :P

[@Dynamous1]

I really needed this video, thank you so much!

[@ArawnNox]

How do you reward players for engaging in the cultures you invent? Your examples in the video were pretty vague. Can you elaborate with something specific?

[@cristianflores2494]

People usually like others that respect and try to learn their culture, so have your npcs be willing to help them, give them resources and info, show them technologies and magical abilities useful for the current terrain, fauna and weather, etc. If they don't they'll be deemed more or less annoying or uninteresting outsiders and will be denied these priviledges or even suffer aggression. If your bard engages in a ceremonial dance with great respect or exchanges dance moves with the whimsical faeries, then they mave offer them something in return cause they're just that cool with you. But fish in a sacred lake, and you can expect harpoons being pointed at you.

[@harpymaslow]

Great content. As usual. Thanks Guy !

[@pheralanpathfinder4897]

I enjoy creating unusual cultures when players travel outside the region where they began. I also try to lean into the different religion and racial hegemony of most non human cities.

[@bobbyhempel1513]

I feel that trees and other plants would communicate with people that are able to communicate them in an almost electronic instantaneous download of information.

[@ancapftw9113]

Now I need to work on my world's culture a bit more. I know that they banned most magic (except holy magic for clerics, monks, and paladins and wizardry for nobles) for religious reasons, and that the humans finished conquering the elves, orcs, and dwarves on their continent about 200 years ago, but allowed their nobles to maintain their titles if they swore fealty to the human king, but that's more law and government than culture.

[@jeevesosiris]

Excellent video

[@Falmosta]

I didn't know about the green car thing that's interesting.

[@CommanderM117]

my game i am making the dwarves in order become a man/bearded one they have to train in the mines and build there hammer from scratch only then do they have a voice and can get a job interesting the laws to the northern kingdoms are like are own and to the south they have there golden rule might makes right

[@icywinterof88]

thank you, this was very insightful

[@lysander1]

great as ever. so helpful.

[@mophia339]

I have a world in which the worlds cultures changed after a world altering event. Now the cultures are besieged by abominations, raiders, slavers and monsters while also fighting amongst one another. They all fight for survival, the only main difference is the way in which they do it, Humanity has followed the teachings of their faith and have become extremely hostile and xenophobic, dwarves are stoic believing they are generally above others but welcome the alliance they have with humanity, each dwarven city is old and different with different goals, there are other races like the reptilian races that outlawed magic because the misuse of magic rendered their lands into a barren desert and so on. Each race reacted differently to the event that tore through their world and developed differently.

[@8393Robertrex]

This man was born to be a dungeon master

[@timgreen6384]

Have you lost weight? The thumb with you playing at being a radar receiver does make you seem thinner and the next thumb I see "10 is takes we all make" your cheeks seem smaller and all that is with the 10lds that the camera "adds"?

[@adakahless]

Tim Green Looks to me that he's farther away from the camera and there's different light and background so that may change how we are used to seeing him. He still looks good though...and he has ac now. xD

[@timgreen6384]

Adelaide I thought you were going to say HAIR (I have very little at least on top)!

[@admiralgoodboy]

Are you Shadiversity’s brother?

[@level9ing635]

The Babylonian marriage market, as described by Herodotus in Book 1 of the Histories. Is a great idea to use in barbarian tribal gathering. The players may well assume its little more than a slave market until the logic behind it all is explained to them. Basically husbands to be bid for their wives, who are normally betrothed to them anyway. And the money gained from the bidding is then used to make sure the remaining women find a husband/family unit. Not only so she has a form of legal protection/role within the tribe, but also because the spine of the world is harsh place at the best of times. While your players may try to disrupt the marriage market. The tribe could be using this as a census, diplomatic , survival plan for the coming year. Everybody is accounted for and fund a family unit to be placed with. The women ,men and their families probably wont take too well, to some perfumed fools trying to gate crash what is effectively their wedding day.

[@jamestown8398]

Swamp people are dour? Try explaining that to New Orleans.

[@carlosforma5978]

This is also good for book writing

[@d4n737]

Soo... My Book world - Aurora There is a lot of stuff in there, because it's not the Middle ages. It's 2015, So even though there is Magic and its useful sometimes, The times of crazy beliefs, when world was a big mistery are long gone. The D&D type of fantasy was from 13 B.C.E to 625 C.E. It was called "Leonistic Era". Now, there is the internet, cars, advanced medicine - 21st century. But there is still A place That is still in the early tribe state. The Island Idea (Ee-Day-Ah) Home to Ver'Kha Tribes. Ver'Kha are kind of Mantis people and they existed for about 600 years (Not a lot). And their culture is a lot of wierd from usual. It is Perfectly normal to Tie-up your children when you are not around. Because of their biology a female needs to be impregnated by four males to become pregnant. The number four is in general a very important number, for that reason. There are four elements (Sea, Sand, Moon and The Sun) Four gods and their father who has a four-word Name Etc. But if we are talking gameplay, The Key word would be the Moon. Tribe members who didn't decide to travel, or live in civilization, those that stayed behind on the island - they FEAR the moon. They are all Selenophobic. See, they hunt at day, when they can see. but one rule to never brake - No walking away from the village after sundown. When the sun sets, the most feral animals start to hunt. they could easily kill any prey in the jungle, so the tribe members believe that the moon is cursed and wakes monsters. Maybe a penalty for fighting at night? Or a debuff for all the players exploring Ideic jungles at night?

[@pol1229]

That flower should narrate audio books XD

[@lesot5907]

This is the greatest accent ever

[@MCHelios618]

I also named my Egyptian-inspired civilization Sehjet (sp?)! o.O

[@terminator9348]

Reminder for me 12:04

[@omerle4393]

Contact me if you are in Osaka or the area and wanna game :)

[@mariodennis630]

You're awesome.

[@harrisjm62]

I didn't care much for his, shall we say, materialistic approach to "culture" as buildings, clothes, and environmental adaptations. That could equally just be art and technology. I prefer to look at things like dispute resolution (law), government, religion, family structure, funeral rites. Some options are going to be limited by geography, but much of it is totally up in the air. If you think about things like road width as representations of a group's age you're likely overthinking it (or underthinking economics), and your players won't even notice. Its best just to stick to written or oral history for showing a group's age (which you can fill with many interesting lies). A large library, or a group of elderly reciters. Now here is something really interesting, Utopian Socialists were great authors of fictional culture. Really its like reading an ethnography of the future. And ethnography, or anthropology should have been terms used right at the start of the video. There's a social science dedicated to the subject people can look into and draw from.

[@glowingdawn9179]

So why do the mountain dwarves not move to the plains if living underground or in the mountains suck so badly?

[@cofounderofthejungle8140]

Nathan Kelm they might by different countries sharing the contentnent or opposing ideals e.g. Plains dwarfs are considered to be racially different like the chaos dwarfs in warhammer or too culturally different. Then there is distance as far as is told the could be Spain to Lithuania distance or just down the road

[@kosm866]

Someone likes dances with wolves lol

[@Kid_ACognito]

Last time I was this early, RayWilliamJohnson was relevant.

[@MrAzrealDragon]

I kinda like the echo

[@stephanerasmus6288]

Are you an Afrikaner if I might ask? Is jy 'n Afrikaner as ek mag vra?

[@joshmathews6790]

wHY DID YOU LEAVE SOUTH AFRICA

[@thezoloyouno3091]

👍

[@TheWildmanden]

Wait, did you move to Japan permanently? o.O

[@trashpanda5869]

Whaaaaat? I didn't know you were South African. Where exactly are you from?

[@stevenphilpott4294]

*Jazz hands*

[@starkiller5324]

Culture

[@timgreen6384]

Any news on the volunteering to play front 😆😆😇😆😆😆! Hey hey me me I am here I'll sacrifice myself to that train!🚅🚅!

[@DeadDanDan]

My current culture is monotheistic and worship a deity that is a skeleton, so their language represents the linguistic abilities of someone with out lips, and they believe upon death a piece of your soul will be reincarnated, not your whole soul tho, so everyone is inherently intertwined spiritually, and with every creature and plant. Reverence for nature and a lack of hierarchical systems form the basis of their culture.

[@MalaysianChopsticks]

I just thought of something. I might create a culture that greet people with loud “WELCOME” but in their language. Then start to aggressively run and do a welcome dance in front of the players. Before they can do a dance the players kill them. That would be funny.